www.twitter.com/craigthedeac

Been tweeting updates of all the tourneys I play, apologies for not writing blogs lately. I've played ~14 tourneys so far and have cashed in 4 (all were mincashes or slightly higher than mincashes). I think I'm roughly even overall on the series. I've been very happy with my level of play thus far, especially today. Mincashing is annoying but hey it could be worse.

Today I played Day 1A of one of the 1k WSOP tourneys. I made it through with what I'm guessing is a slightly above average stack of 22,850 with 25 minutes of 300-600 remaining. Making Day 2 (Saturday) means I have tomorrow off when I would have otherwise played the $2500. Unfortunately, my housemates went to the club Tao at the Venetian which I am banned from and nobody else seems to be up to anything. (http://www.leggopoker.com/blogs/crai...etian-872.html)

So now I'm just hanging at home alone writing a blog. Might have to crack a brew and chill in the hot tub in a few minutes.

I'm registered for day 1A of the main event on the 5th. Hopefully I have to unregister and sign up for a later day because the final table of the 1k would be on the 5th.

Random story I want to make sure to blog about... a couple of weeks ago on Day 2 of the $5000 NL WSOP I played with Phil Hellmuth. I've played with just about every big named pro but it was my first time getting to play with him. I will admit I get excited when I get to play with the celebrities. I actually think as a result I play much better because I try extra hard to beat them.

Phil was up to his usual antics, whining whenever someone raised him, etc. I played only 2 pots against him, once I 3bet him with QQ and he folded while berating me. The other hand I opened TT in EP he called from his bb and donked like 4k into 20k on a A38ss flop and folded to a small raise, obv he whined some more before folding to me. When I was thinking about calling/raising he said to me "there's 4k kid what you gonna do?" or something along those lines. haha

Phil played pretty well overall. He is loose (but not particularly aggressive) preflop and really nitty postflop when it comes to getting in a lot of chips. He takes lots of random cheap stabs at pots (sometimes with good hands) but if he gets in a lot of chips, he will have a strong hand. Somehow people still donate to him postflop. I guess his table talk and preflop looseness somehow trick people into thinking he can be light in spots where he just consistently has it. He literally even tells all the "internet kids" how he will eventually trap them or something and get it in way ahead, and he's not kidding.

If you're playing him without history he will act fast in spots with huge hands because he thinks you will interpret it as weak. Preflop he tends to flat too much with his good hands, so I think he is generally great to 4bet as his 3betting range seems too weighted towards weaker hands plus he loves to hero fold good hands. He severely overvalues tourney life and likes to keep pots small so trying to blow up pots against him will get you a lot of FE.

Not really sure why I decided to post reads on Hellmuth. If they turn out to be of any use to anyone, buy me a beer or something.

Craig

I've only played two tourneys so far, the 1k and the 5k shootout. The 1k I didn't last too long in. I missed 4-5 flops in the first two levels, and due to the fast structure of this tournament, that left me pretty short and in level 3 I got in 13bb with 88 against AK and lost.

The 5k shootout was a fun tournament. I had a really solid strategy for shootouts (nit it up early and try to get to shorthanded/HU even if I'm at a chip disadvantage because that's where my edge is biggest). My table had Dario Minieri, Greenstein, Jorj95, Steve O'Dwyer (MrTimCaum), and Blake Cahail (BallaB13). The others were fairly weak. My table seemed softer than the average table in this tournament so I was pretty satisfied. The only thing bugging me was that I was OOP against Steve and Dario and I figured those two would give me the most trouble.

I ran well early and got to 40k from a 15k starting stack. With an average stack and 4-5 people left I just missed every flop. Dario was flatting me a lot on my left and the flop would keep coming out like 863ss and I would have QJ and just have to give him the pot. Dario was the CL and he got a huge donation from the guy with 2nd most chips, so we finally got HU and I was down 20k to his 130k at 1/2k.

Despite the huge chip disadvantage, I knew that I still had a decent chance. In my two previous WSOP shootouts, I got into HU down ~9:1 each time, and at some point got a big CL, but then ended up losing anyways. The structure of these tourneys is really good when it's shorthanded because you play so many hands/level. With 20bb against Dario it's basically a flip as to whether or not I will double to 40bb and be able to have an edge on him. Unfortunately I got in 44 against his JJ and he won.

Dario played this shootout with a gameplan very similar to mine. He is normally extremely loose but played very tight early on. I played A+ poker in this tournament and he did too, so I'm not disappointed to have lost.

In other news, everyone is finally moved into the house and the house is amazing. Huge pool, spa, swim-up bar, sunken BBQ, basketball court, batting cage, and fire pit. We've been going out and I had a couple of friends in town which has explained my lack of volume so far. I will be playing the 1500NL tomorrow and the 1k on Saturday if I'm out of tomorrow's event. I didn't want to play the PLH tourney today because PLH is dumb.

Just heard there is a new COD map pack, so I'm going to go now, lol.

Sorry for the gap since my last update!

Lately (and for the next couple of months) I've been playing mostly MTTs, both live and online. I played LAPC, NAPT Mohegan Sun, WSOPC St. Louis, and am currently playing most of the FTOPS (I have played all but one event thus far). I had a 40k cash at LAPC, have built stacks in most everything else, but haven't done anything major. I've been unlucky deep in a few FTOPS but that's how it goes. I did win a 100c on PS a few days ago for 21k so I've been doing well, but feel like I'm on the verge of something big.

With the SCOOP starting on Sunday just after the FTOPS, then a small series at the Commerce in LA, then WSOP, I'm going to be playing some major tourney at least every other day for the next 2.5 months.

I am extremely confident with my tourney game. My postflop/deep play is much better than the typical solid MTTer's. I also think my 15-30bb play is better than what most of the respected MTTers do. Having a background in 9-max SNGs, I'm really comfortable with proper pushbotting theory and the math behind it. It's shocking to me that many respected MTTers have got into some bad habits and it's catching on. Few people seem to understand how to properly analyze the EV of some of those deeper jams. Most people are pretty good with 8-10bb stacks, but that is easy! I've been coaching/backing a few friends that I know from Wake Forest in MTTs so going through the same math that I did way back in the day again with them has really kept me sharp in this regard.

My cash game is a tad rusty since I haven't grinded 3/6+ recently. I generally don't like to mix cash and tourneys at the same time but I've found a table or two of small stakes rush poker on FTP to be mindless enough and enjoyable. I have put in a few decent cash sessions this month with results that I'm happy with:



Also not included in those results have been a few good sessions of 10/20 8-game on Stars.

Anyways, although I plan on focusing on MTTs for the next couple of months, I do still plan on keeping my cash game sharp and improving in that regard. I know that living in our Vegas house with some good cash grinders will help. I also am privileged enough to be an editor for Reid's (SHOOTAA) poker book which is really good thus far.

Anyways, best of luck and do your best to avoid my tables in the FTOPS/SCOOP
Craig

Played really well today and won a couple of key all ins. In the first level I got in A3cc on JT4cc against JT and got there. Obviously pretty standard with ~35bb and I probably had some FE and obviously am crushing other draws and have odds against everything else.

I lost a kinda big pot with AT against Corkins when I flatted his open otb and it came JJ8 I called, Kx ckck, river blank I called and he had K6.

I got moved to the table that had an online stream which was kinda cool. Got in 77 against AK for 30bbs after he 3b me and I picked up a tell that didn't have a big pair, when I otherwise would have folded, I won that flip.

Then I played pretty well, couldn't get too tricky as there were some loose players with big stacks making things difficult for me. I found a few spots and extracted a lot of value and ended the day in the money, a little over average (avg is 207, I have 227, blinds are still 1500/3000). Pretty excited heading into tomorrow.

www.twitter.com/craigthedeac for updates

I have about 42k and average is about 76k. Blinds will be 600/1200/200a so I will still have room for some play.

I started the day with 29k, chipped down to like 22k without much interesting happening. Then I had a great level where I got all the way up to 97k (biggest pot being about 85k where my AA > AK). The last level of the day (500/1k) was really bad as I lost a lot of chips making a marginal calldown and then lost a few other uninteresting pots to end up with just 42k.

Lately I've been playing a lot of tennis (thinly veiled brag, it's 70 and sunny here) and have been working-out at a CrossFit gym for the last couple of weeks. CrossFit is really tough but I feel great and have been improving.

The next couple of months I am going to be traveling a lot and playing some live tournaments. Next week, I am headed to LA for Commerce's LAPC. I've heard great things about the cash games there (~8 games of 10/20, ~2 games of 20/40 has been going so far) and it is supposed to get even more action next week when the higher stakes tournaments begin.

As for the LAPC tourneys I will be playing, I will likely arrive on the 19th and play the WPT Invitational Freeroll on the 20th (I get an invite for buying into the Main Event early) which has a great structure, a televised final table, and is a decent amount of free equity. The 22nd there is a 3k 6-max which I will play. The 23rd there is a 10k HU double elimination which I might play if the field seems worth it but who knows. Then, I will play the Main on the 26th.

After I win the LAPC Main Event, my next stop will be Chicago for the Chicago Poker Classic. There are a couple of interesting tourneys (a 1k HU, 3k Main) which will have really good structures and significant overlay. I will also get to see some friends that live in the area which will be fun.

On March 7, I am leaving for a Caribbean cruise with some friends from Wake during their Spring Break. I have only been on one other cruise and that was with my family when I was young, I imagine this will be a much different cruise haha.

After that it is back to San Diego for the WSOP Circuit series that is here. In early/mid April, the Circuit goes to St. Louis, where I am from, so I will make that trip as well.

Then I imagine I will come back to San Diego for a month or so and get moved out of the apartment before heading to Vegas for the summer.

Should be a busy, but hopefully fun and profitable time.

Myself, Greg, and Reid (shootaa) have a Vegas house booked for basically the whole WSOP. May 28-July 9.

The house is really sick, you can get more info here: http://www.vrbo.com/224428











As of now both master bedrooms and the solo room are booked by the three of us for the entire stay. We are looking for three other people to fill the other three beds (one is a futon in an office, the other two are twin beds that share a room). The cost for the entire stay (~6 weeks) for one bed is approximately $2,450.

We would prefer people looking to book a room for the entire time as it is easier for us. However, we will consider partial stays.

To apply, PM me with more information about you. We are looking for trustworthy people that we think we would get along with well. Ideally you would play MSNL or HSNL but that's not a requirement. We're pretty active and social and we are looking for roomates that are as well.

P.S. The total cost for the house is ~$16,500 (the rates are higher than advertised for WSOP time). Our rooms are costing $3,200 each and the rooms available are discounted.

The trip as a whole has been pretty disappointing so far, mostly because of the weather. Today was my sixth day here and the weather was great one of the days but the rest of the time it's been a little chilly (cloudy, lots of wind, temperature in the 60's). Definitely not good enough to want to be in the pool. Thankfully we had that one day and we took advantage of it by being outside the whole day.

I played the main event on Day 1B and busted about halfway through the first day. I managed to lose 24k of my 30k stack (240 BBs) in the first 30 minutes which is pretty tough to do. I had a couple of younger looser guys on my right and just got in a lot of great spots to play reraised pots given that we were 300bb deep to start. I wasn't going out of my way to force the action, just picked up good hands in some squeeze spots. I lost a big pot with AA where I squoze the looser guys CO/BTN from my SB and they called and it came KJJss I bet the BTN calls turn is a low card completing the fd it goes ck/ck I don't have the flush draw. The river is a low blank and I bet and he very quickly puts out a small raise and I folded. Shortly after that I flatted a 3b with JTs, flopped TP on a dry board, but was up against AA and lost a couple bets there.

At that point I was pretty discouraged but grinded it out and managed to rebuild to around 20k, where I hovered for a couple of levels. I eventually busted in the 5th level in a ~45k pot with A9 on a 944ss 5x ai on the turn against AJss. He cr'd the flop as the PFR and I was pretty damn sure he had a fd and his bet sizing and body language on the turn made it even more obvious but I was unable to fade the 12 outer. Oh well.

Yesterday I registered for a multitable HU battleship where you are supposed to play 8 HU SNGs simultaneously against 8 different people. Would've been an extremely fun tournament but it only got 8 players registered and they just canceled it.

Today I played in a $1k live HU tourney which had a slightly bad structure, but it was at least best of 3 so that made things better at least. My opponent was a younger guy who I didn't recognize. Based on some of the things he and his friends who were railing were saying, I assumed he was a decent MTTer which was fine with me as I figured I would have a decent edge on that type of opponent. He also said he didn't play in the Main Event. Also very early in the first round he threw in a 500 chip, obviously intending to 3bet to 500, but didn't indicate a raise so it was ruled a call. Based on these things I kinda pegged him as a mediocre player. I would later find out after the match that A) he knew who I was and B) after a little research I figured out he was BCM11 who happens to be one of the biggest HU SNG winners. Needless to say my read on him and how he was going to play against me was fairly far off and the result was that I think he outplayed me.

The first match went back and forth and eventually the blinds got high and there were like 5 all ins before I eventually lost a big flip to lose the match. We did play a cool hand earlier in the match though where I used a live read to make a correct call:

I flatted his open with A8o, probably when blinds were 50/100 and we both had around 5k. Flop J8x rainbow and I cc a standard sized bet. Turn Ax which is a great card for me for if he has an A he likely bets and I will win a big pot and if he has a draw or air he probably fires it against as a bluff. Anyways he checks behind so I miss my cr so I'm pretty sure he has an 8 or a J. The river is a J and I check because I think I should check my whole range given that his most likely hands are monsters or are too weak to call a bet, plus there is a chance he could bluff, although it seems unlikely with no turn bet. Anyways he puts out a decent sized river bet and I kinda hate life because even though my hand is pretty under-repped, I feel like I'm behind anything that can value bet there (my kicker doesn't play now so at best I'm chopping if he checked back turn with Ax) and bluffs seem unlikely. I also didn't think he would valuebet worse because it seemed too thin for the type of player I assumed he was not to mention that I would check the river with my big hands (although he might not know that).

Anyways I thought for a while and realized my analysis was pointing towards a fold (even though I don't like folding) but I figured I might as well stare at him and try to pick up on a read given that he wasn't too experienced of a live player. After a few moments of looking down doing nothing, he checked his hole cards which made me immediately call because there's just no reason for him to check his cards there. If he has a J or an A he knows it and is making a valuebet and should feel good since it's obvious at this point that I'm not thinking of raising and am contemplating what I felt was a light call given the situation. I just assumed that him checking his hole cards indicates some sort of discomfort which could be some odd bluff or who knows, I just don't ever see people doing that with a J or A and knew with his lack of live experience I wasn't getting reverse-tell owned. Anyways I called and he flipped up 99 so I won but I was pretty surprised to see him going for such thin value. I think it's a poor bet on his part since he can't really rep air and as such I shouldn't be calling too light. I'm certainly capable of making light calls but this simply isn't a good spot for me to be doing so. I'm guessing he just didn't realize I would check a strong hand on the river (even though I think it's clearly the right move) and figured 99 was good and bet hoping I made a hero call.

The second match I never really got anything going and ran into a few big hands and that was that. Overall I think he played really well and outplayed me, although the unbalanced information probably had something to do with that. Regardless it was a fun event. Tomorrow I think I will play the main event of the battleship which is a 2k buyin and also is best of 3 (although it is played on computers).

2009 was an eventful year for me. I did well in the PCA, graduated from Wake Forest, had a good WSOP, moved to San Diego, had a good FTOPS, and traveled to Europe. Cash games were a little disappointing overall but I can't honestly say that I have put enough effort into them lately. The vast majority of my cash game action was on Cake which I like for various reasons (anonymity, small player pool, no HUD, no tableratings). Lately I've played some mixed games and PLO with okay results.

MTTs went very well on the year, both live and online. I also have recently had success via my students/stakees (one of which won TLB on PokerStars last week and can currently be seen sporting a "birdcall" in the PS lobby). I'm really happy with my MTT game right now and plan on playing a significant amount of big live tournaments this year as well the occasional Sunday online schedule. I do however need to grind more cash games for a steadier income and to prevent myself from getting too lazy.

I don't normally make resolutions and wasn't planning on doing any this year, but after a few recent conversations I came up with a couple of good ones that I will give a shot. 1) Become a good cook. I really enjoy watching cooking shows on TV (namely, Top Chef) and like probably everyone else I love going out to great restaurants. I'd like to become skilled and knowledgeable in the kitchen. 2) Get in good shape. I was really off and on with this in 2009 (mostly off) but I need to develop a consistent routine of some sort. I play tennis a lot and hit the gym randomly, but that's not good enough. A lot of my San Diego friends are joining Cross-fit which seems like a really intense workout routine and I am planning on joining as well.

Tomorrow (Sunday) night, I am taking a red-eye flight and heading to PCA in the Bahamas. I'm bringing my brother Grant along and I will know a lot of other people down there as well. I upgraded to a room in the Cove this year and am excited to see how that compares to the Royal Tower (I imagine it will be much nicer and I don't think I'll mind the walk). I'm playing the Main Event and doubt I play much more than that. If anything maybe a random HU tourney or battleship, of which there are many. It's funny because the weather in the Bahamas will likely be worse than it is currently in San Diego (it was 77 degrees today).

Earlier for dinner, I decided to try cooking a meal. I made pork chops with a maple/balsamic/apple sauce, asparagus, and picked-up some cole slaw from a grocery store. I think it turned out okay, a lot better than I was expecting. It actually wasn't that hard to do which was a nice surprise. This was my first "real dinner" that I have cooked completely on my own. I'm going to spend some time practicing, studying, and maybe taking a class and hopefully I can start making some awesome food.

Here's a pic of the dinner I cooked for Mike and I tonight: